Episodes

Monday Feb 03, 2025
EXTREME WEALTH, PROPERTY & POWER
Monday Feb 03, 2025
Monday Feb 03, 2025
In this podcast, I examine the relationship between accumulations of extreme wealth and notions of property and their connection to power. I suggest how these might be re-configured so as to eliminate their current malignant threat to general human flourishing. [Free. 29 minutes.]

Wednesday Jan 08, 2025
BILLIONAIRES: WHAT ARE THEY GOOD FOR?
Wednesday Jan 08, 2025
Wednesday Jan 08, 2025
Join me on my constitutional. I enquire into the matter of the extreme concentrations of wealth and power in the hands of a small number of billionaires and take issue with a couple of the regular justifications for this status quo. The first of these is the notion that if people can't get hyper-rich without restriction that that would be an affront to liberty. The second is the notion that the ability to accumulate vast amounts of wealth and power by a few somehow makes for dynamism and innovation which benefits everybody via trickle down. Beware! Contains utopian speculation. [Free. 31 minutes.]

Sunday Jun 02, 2024
EQUALITY, NIETZSCHE, SOCIAL DARWINISM
Sunday Jun 02, 2024
Sunday Jun 02, 2024
In this podcast, I take issue with a range of pleas for inequality in society. I examine the idea that inequality is "natural", and the mobilisation of Darwin's account of evolution to propagandise for that idea and find these wanting. I criticise the notion that equality as a desideratum is inimical to freedom. I examine the way in which Nietzsche draws our attention to the undeniable variation in the endowments humans find themselves with and point the illogicality of what he makes of that fact, which is partly the result of failing to distinguish the variety of phenomena that the term "equality" refers to. I conclude that society should tend towards greater equality, repudiating caste society, eugenics and capitalism, and that this is necessary for human flourishing in freedom, and indeed survival. [Free. 22 minutes.]

Friday Oct 20, 2023
BALLOTS, BOMBS, BLOWBACK - INTERESTING TIMES 69
Friday Oct 20, 2023
Friday Oct 20, 2023
In this podcast we reflect on three current events - the Tory byelection defeats in the UK, the crescendo in ongoing violence in Israel-Palestine, and the authoritarian crackdowns on the supporters of the people of Gaza in Europe and beyond. We show how these seemingly disparate events are intimately connected by being a part of the same complex pathology. We touch on the importance of geopolitical, global-economic and historical contexts. [Free. 27 minutes.]

Saturday Oct 07, 2023
TORY CONFERENCE 23 - INCOMPETENCE, FRAGMENTATION AND MADNESS - INTERESTING TIMES 69
Saturday Oct 07, 2023
Saturday Oct 07, 2023
In this podcast, we reflect on widely reported items from the 2023 Tory Part Conference, and plug into some of the wider political and philosophical issues they give rise to. [Free. 42 minutes.]

Wednesday Sep 20, 2023
TRAILER FOR ’THE APOCALYPSE & YOU’ LIVE EVENTS
Wednesday Sep 20, 2023
Wednesday Sep 20, 2023
In this podcast, we outline the material we'll cover in our forthcoming series of live talks on zoom. The series starts on 15th October, 1pm BST and four more events follow at weekly intervals. To book, visit http://peteyates.uk/live-events/. [Free. 29 minutes.]

Friday Jun 23, 2023
SOCRATES & THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
Friday Jun 23, 2023
Friday Jun 23, 2023
In this podcast, we discuss the resonances between the question asked by Socrates in Plato's Republic, 'How should life be lived?', and the TV series, The Walking Dead. [Free. 50 minutes.]

Sunday Apr 30, 2023
OUR BIGGEST DANGER?
Sunday Apr 30, 2023
Sunday Apr 30, 2023
In this podcast, we consider Nietzsche's assertion that "Our biggest danger is disgust at man." The discussion ranges wide and includes an appraisal of Nietzsche's counter-insight that life is redeemed by art. [Free. 39 minutes.]

Wednesday Nov 30, 2022
LAO TZU 57
Wednesday Nov 30, 2022
Wednesday Nov 30, 2022
In this podcast, we consider Chapter 70 Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. This chapter shows Lao Tzu in expansive mood, urging on us the absolute immediacy of the Tao and the ease with which it is available to us. Click this link to buy me a coffee :) [Free. 23 minutes.]

Monday Oct 10, 2022
LAO TZU 54
Monday Oct 10, 2022
Monday Oct 10, 2022
In this podcast, we discuss Chapter 67 of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching in which Lao Tzu elucidates the necessity for good leaders to embody compassion, thrift and humility. Click this link to buy us a coffee! [Free. 19 minutes.]